Crime

Live updates: Tracking the Ana Walshe case

The Cohasset woman was last seen on Jan. 1. Her husband, Brian Walshe, was charged with her murder on Jan. 17.

By Ross Cristantiello and Christopher Gavin

updated on January 18, 2023

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The investigation into Ana Walshe’s disappearance has rocked Cohasset and led to a sprawling investigation both in Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., where the mother of three worked.

Her husband, Brian Walshe, was charged with her murder on Jan. 17. He was first arrested on Jan. 8 and charged with misleading a police investigation. When he appeared in court on Jan. 9, prosecutors said that police found blood and a bloody, damaged knife in the basement of the Walshe family’s home.

Ana Walshe was first reported missing on Jan. 4 by co-workers. She had a flight scheduled to take her from Boston to Washington on Jan. 3 but never boarded the plane.

Early on in their investigation, police were told that she had to change her plans due to an emergency at work and had left early in the morning on Jan. 1 to take a rideshare to Logan Airport. But police soon shifted their focus from a missing person probe to a murder investigation.

Here’s what to know so far:

• Ana Walshe was last seen on New Year’s Eve, when a family friend celebrated with the couple in Cohasset.
• During a Jan. 6 press conference, Cohasset Police Chief William Quigley said police were told Ana Walshe was supposed to take a rideshare to Logan Airport and hop on a flight to Washington D.C. on New Year’s Day. She initially had a flight booked for Jan. 3, but investigators were told that she was going to leave early due to a work-related emergency. 
• Ana Walshe never boarded any flight, and authorities found no indication she even stepped foot in a rideshare, Quigley said.
• Police initially said Brian Walshe, 47, was cooperating with the investigation. He was charged on Jan. 8 with misleading police as they probed his wife’s disappearance.
• On Jan. 9, Brian Walshe pleaded not guilty to the charge in Quincy District Court, where prosecutors said on Jan. 2, he purchased approximately $450 of cleaning products.
• In court, prosecutors also said investigators discovered blood and a bloody, damaged knife in the basement of the couple’s home.

• Investigators searched a trash facility in Peabody the evening of Jan. 9, and reportedly found a hack saw, blood, and used cleaning supplies.

• Brian Walshe was charged with murder and disinterring a body on Jan. 17 and ordered held without bail at his arraignment the following day. A plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf.

• At the second arraignment, prosecutors showcased a series of Google searches Brian Walshe allegedly made after his wife went missing, including, “10 ways to dispose of a dead body if you really need to.” Ana Walshe’s DNA was also found on bloody items he allegedly discarded in dumpsters, authorities said.

• Ana Walshe told Washington, D.C., police in 2014 that Brian Walshe threatened to kill her and her friends.

• In 2021, Brian Walshe pleaded guilty in Boston federal court to selling two fraudulent Andy Warhol paintings in 2016. Police said that case and the disappearance of Ana Walshe appear to be separate incidents.

• Brian Walshe is also at the center of an ongoing dispute over his late father’s will. Family and friends alleged he was disinherited from his father’s estate, and went on to destroy the document and liquidate the assets. “Brian is an evil person and capable of just about anything,” a friend of his father said, according to an affidavit filed in probate court.

The murder case against Brian Walshe, according to prosecutors (Jan. 18)

Only days before Ana Walshe was last seen alive, her husband, Brian, allegedly made what prosecutors now consider a revelatory Google search.

“What is the best state to divorce for a man,” he typed into the online search engine on Dec. 27, according to Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Lynn Beland.

“Rather than divorce, it is believed that Brian Walshe dismembered Ana Walshe and discarded her body,” Beland said in Quincy District Court on Wednesday.

Investigators believe the body of the Cohasset mother of three was thrown into trash bags her husband later discarded in North Shore communities.

Police uncovered 10 trash bags stuffed with blood-stained items, including a hacksaw and a hatchet, at a Peabody trash transfer station last week, although other bags were destroyed before authorities were able to get ahold of them, Beland said.

The items, some of which contained DNA of both the Cohasset husband and wife, were among the new evidence presented in court as Brian Walshe, 47, was arraigned on charges of murder and disinterring a body — over a week after authorities said he purposely misled police amid their search for the missing mother.

A plea of not guilty was entered on Brian Walshe’s behalf. At the request of Beland, a judge ordered him held without bail, pending an indictment.

Read the full story.

‘How long before a body starts to smell’: A list of Brian Walshe’s Google searches, according to prosecutors (Jan. 18)

The day after his wife Ana Walshe was last seen, prosecutors allege Brian Walshe asked Google, “Can you be charged with murder without a body?”

Walshe, 47, got his answer Wednesday as he was arraigned in Quincy District Court on charges of murder and disinterring a body in connection with his wife’s disappearance. Ana Walshe’s body has not been found. A not guilty plea was entered on Brian Walshe’s behalf.

In court, prosecutor Lynn Beland rattled off a list of Google searches they say Brian Walshe made, some on his son’s iPad, in the days after the Cohasset mother of three was last seen in the early hours of New Year’s Day. 

Read the full list of alleged Google searches.

Brian Walshe charged with murder (Jan. 17)

Brian Walshe, the husband of Ana Walshe, the missing Cohasset mother who was last seen early on New Year’s Day, is now facing a murder charge in connection with her disappearance, Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey announced Tuesday afternoon.

“A continued investigation has now allowed police to obtain an arrest warrant charging Brian Walshe with the murder of his wife,” Morrissey said in a video statement.

Walshe will be transported to Quincy District Court and arraigned on a murder charge, he said. 

Read the full story.

What we learned about Ana Walshe’s past (Jan. 16)

As the investigation into Ana Walshe’s disappearance enters its third week, new information about her past is coming to light. 

Last March, Walshe moved to Washington, D.C. for her job in the real estate industry. She spent most of the year living away from her husband and their three young boys in Cohasset, The Boston Globe reported.

The distance between Ana and her family reportedly caused some issues. A friend of hers, Alissa Kirby, told Boston 25 News last week that Ana and Brian Walshe were “experiencing a lot of stress together,” and that “it had been a very tense Christmas.”

A friend who spent New Year’s Eve with the couple, right before Ana went missing on Jan. 1, avoided answering a question from the Globe about any conflicts between Ana and Brian Walshe. 

“You’ve got to talk to the police,” he told the paper. “I can’t comment on that.”

Brian Walshe remains in custody on charges of misleading police. The couple’s children are in state custody, but a friend has filled out an application with the Department of Children and Families to care for them, WMUR reported. 

Before meeting Brian and establishing herself in Massachusetts and Washington, Ana Walshe arrived in the US from Serbia in 2005. She found work cleaning hotel rooms in Virginia before acquiring a certificate from Cornell University’s hospitality management program, according to her LinkedIn profile. She worked her way up through a series of high-end hospitality jobs in Boston, working at the InterContinental and the Taj.

Ana met Brian in 2008 at the Wheatleigh hotel in the Berkshires. She was married to another man first, according to the Globe, but recalled later that meeting Brian Walshe was “love at first sight.”

“When I met Brian, I witnessed his kindness and generosity on many occasions, however, I also saw the level of suffering in his life,” she wrote in a letter to a judge obtained by the Globe. “He was afraid of relationships and for years did not allow anyone to get close to him, including me. He was clearly in doubt that he could be loved for who he truly was.”

That love eventually got her tangled up in Brian Walshe’s legal troubles. While orchestrating a scheme to sell fake Andy Warhol paintings, Brian Walshe cheated a person in France out of $145,000, according to court records obtained by the Globe. He reportedly used some of this to take Ana shopping at Prada. 

Brian Walshe pleaded guilty in 2021 to scamming a Los Angeles collector using the fake Warhols. Before his sentencing, he was also accused of misleading investigators by failing to disclose some of his wife’s assets, including a 2014 Fiat, a 2015 Maserati, and real estate, the Globe reported. 

“It is particularly striking because the defendant’s wife benefitted from the fraud here, which took place before they were married but were together: the defendant transferred approximately $115,000 directly to or for the benefit of his wife, from funds provided by the victims,” prosecutors wrote in a memo obtained by the Globe.

Ana Walshe’s eBay account was used to list the two Warhol paintings, and at one point FBI investigators were hoping to collect her DNA and fingerprints in connection with the case, according to the paper. It is not clear if that evidence was collected.  

A longtime friend of Ana’s who lives in Belgrade, Bojan Bacevic, told the Globe that he recently saw a newfound desire for freedom in her. 

“It seemed like she was at a place where she achieved what she wanted family-wise [and] work-wise,” he told the Globe. “And she kind of wanted to live life a little bit more freely.”

“Up until recently, I never had any doubt that she was completely, completely in love with the man,” Bacevic added, when asked about Ana Walshe’s marriage.

Cohasset holds vigil for Ana Walshe (Jan. 13)

A prayer vigil was held Thursday evening for Ana Walshe in Cohasset.

See photos and social media posts from the vigil here.

Ana Walshe told D.C. police that Brian Walshe threatened to kill her (Jan. 12)

Ana Walshe told police in Washington, D.C. that Brian Walshe threatened to kill her over the phone, Boston 25 News first reported Thursday.

In August 2014, Ana Walshe told officers that someone “made a statement over the telephone that he was going to kill her, and her friends,” according to the police report, also obtained by Boston.com.

The public incident report does not directly name Brian Walshe, and refers to Ana Walshe as Ana Knipp, which is her maiden name.

Ana Walshe did not cooperate with the Metropolitan Police Department and Brian Walshe was never charged. The case is now closed, a representative of the department confirmed.

She has not been seen since Jan. 1. Brian Walshe is being held on $500,000 bail at the Norfolk County House of Correction. He was arrested on Sunday and charged with misleading police in their search for Ana.

Prosecutors said in court Monday that police found blood and a bloody, damaged knife in the Cohasset home that the couple shared with their three young boys.

Investigators this week wrapped up their search of the home, and began searching trash facilities and dumpsters at locations Brian Walshe reportedly traveled to right after his wife disappeared.

Thursday vigil for Ana Walshe planned in Cohasset (Jan. 12)

The Cohasset community will come together to honor Ana Walshe on Thursday afternoon as the 39-year-old mother of three remains missing.

According to a Facebook post from St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, there will be an interfaith prayer vigil for Walshe at 4:30 p.m. on Cohasset Town Common.

“All are welcome,” the post says.

Cohasset police warn of scams seeking to profit off of Ana Walshe case (Jan. 12)

Cohasset police are warning the public to be wary of donating to online fundraisers that claim to benefit or support the children of Ana Walshe.

“We are seeing media reports stating there is a fund to help support the children of Ana Walshe,” police said in a Facebook post early Thursday morning. “We would be hesitant to donate to any fundraising campaigns at this time. Beware of scams!”

The children of Ana and Brian Walshe are in the care of the state Department of Children and Families as Ana Walshe remains missing and Brian Walshe is in police custody.

Friends of Ana Walshe want to care for her 3 children, who are currently in state custody (Jan. 12)

Friends of the Walshe family are seeking to get Ana and Brian Walshe’s three sons out of state custody and into their care.

WCVB reports the children, ages 2, 4, and 6, are in the custody of the state Department of Children and Families as their mother remains missing and their father is in law enforcement custody.

Brian Walshe was charged earlier this week with misleading the police investigation of his wife’s disappearance.

“I can only imagine the unfathomable pain that they’re going through,” a family friend, Pamela Bardhi, told the outlet. “This is, unfortunately, going to be something they live with for the rest of their lives, despite the outcome of this investigation.”

Natasha Sky, founder of the Sky International Center, a Newton-based, social-business network Ana Walshe was involved with, said she is proposing to have the three sons kept together.

“In our community, we have quite a few families,” Sky told WCVB. “I’m offering my house for them to stay since I am a mother and I have a 9-year-old.”

She added: “I get emotional when I think of three kids who went through such drama. They don’t know where their mother is, where their father is, and they will be separated. They don’t even have each other.”

Information about the children and cases DCF is involved in is not made publicly available.

Report: Ana Walshe sold the couple’s Revere condo shortly before she went missing (Jan. 12)

A Boston 25 News report says Ana Walshe sold a Revere condo she owned shortly before her disappearance last week.

The deed from the sale of the Revere Street property was recorded by the Suffolk County Registry of Deeds on Dec. 29, according to the news station. Walshe was last seen at her Cohasset home early on Jan. 1, authorities have said.

Property records reviewed by Boston 25 News show Walshe purchased the 670-square-foot condo in January 2020 for $137,000 and put it on the market last November for $199,000.

The condo sold well over asking price at $220,000 just over a week later, with the sale finalized on Dec. 17.

A man involved in the sale told Boston 25 News he shared details of the transaction with Massachusetts State Police.

Documents show Brian Walshe was listed as the “grantor’s,” or seller’s, spouse, which the station notes is common even though only Ana Walshe’s name was on the deed.

Brian Walshe captured on surveillance video near dumpster (Jan. 11)

Brian Walshe was reportedly spotted on surveillance video from Jan. 1, the day his wife went missing, and on Jan. 2.

Cameras captured Brian Walshe near the dumpster of a Swampscott liquor store on Jan. 1, police sources confirmed to Boston 25 News. Walshe said he visited a Whole Foods near that dumpster the same day, but investigators were not able to corroborate that claim with surveillance footage or receipts. The liquor store is across the street from the residence of Brian Walshe’s mother.

In recent days, investigators have been seen searching trash facilities and dumpsters in the areas Brian Walshe visited following Ana Walshe’s disappearance. Items found at a Peabody trash facility are currently being tested and processed as evidence. CBS Boston reports that investigators did not find any evidence in the Swampscott dumpster.

Additionally, security footage obtained by CBS Boston appears to show Brian Walshe inside the Press Juice Bar in Norwell on Jan. 2. Prosecutors previously said Walshe was seen purchasing about $450 in cleaning supplies from a Home Depot on Jan. 2. Walshe allegedly told police that he only left his house on Jan. 2 to take his young son out for ice cream.

‘Easy for me to do them up’: Brian Walshe once boasted about his ability to con others to cushion a luxe lifestyle (Jan. 11)

Brian Walshe lived the good life — at the expense of those around him.

A Boston Globe report published Tuesday night found the 47-year-old father of three was once a well-educated wine connoisseur, concierge, and art dealer with a taste for life’s finer things, and apparently had little qualms, if any, about using those around him to bankroll his world.

In diary entries, he even boasted about how simple it was for him to defraud even the closest people in his life, writing once it’s “easy for me to do them up,” federal court records say.

Walshe was the son of Dr. Thomas M. Walshe, the late prominent neurologist at the helm of Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s neurology department, and Diana Walshe, who came from a family with generational wealth “but that also experienced despair and tragedy that would carry through to her son,” the Globe wrote.

According to the newspaper: “Brian Walshe’s childhood was beset by emotional abuse from a reclusive mother and a father who partied, Walshe’s attorney wrote in a court memo. Brian Walshe was left ‘neglected, unloved, and emotionally damaged,’ his psychiatrist reported, according to a court filing. His parents divorced in 2003, records show.”

Walshe eventually had a falling out with his father.

In the early 2000s, Walshe went to the elder Walshe about a real estate deal, in which his father would pay to renovate a Lenox home in disrepair that Brian Walshe owned, the Globe reports.

When he sold it, his father would receive the money he invested in the property while Brian Walshe would gain a nest egg in the payout.

“The elder Walshe poured more than $500,000 into the renovations and the home was refinanced, according to the family friend and a court affidavit,” the Globe wrote. “On the night of the closing, father and son spoke over the phone, and Brian Walshe was supposed to send a check to his father with his share of the deal. Instead, the friend said, Brian Walshe disappeared with the money.

“Thomas Walshe, the court filings said, didn’t hear from his son for more than a decade.”

Other allegations outlined in the newspaper report include that a college friend of Walshe told the FBI the latter “borrowed” $500,000 and never repaid it, that Walshe deposited over $30,000 in bad checks, and that he often asked friends to pay for expensive dinners.

“According to prosecutors, the owner of Walshe’s former condo in Lynn said Walshe had failed to forward a check made out to them. Walshe cashed it and kept the money,” the newspaper wrote.

Still, after he pleaded guilty in 2021 to selling two fraudulent Andy Warhol paintings, he wrote to the judge about how he pledged to pay whatever restitution was required.

“I have created a contract for myself: ‘I am an honest, courageous, loving leader,’” Walshe wrote. “I repeat this contract to myself on a daily basis. I train every day on 100 percent integrity, 100 percent of the time.”

He went on to ask for the chance to serve his sentence outside of prison.

“My only declaration and intention is to be of service to our community and beyond,” he wrote.

“I am not a threat to any members of our society.”

Read the full Boston Globe report.

No GPS tracking on Brian Walshe’s location monitoring bracelet (Jan. 10)

As a result of Brian Walshe’s past legal troubles, he was ordered to be restricted to his residence except for activities already approved by authorities. In the days surrounding his wife’s disappearance, Walshe was indeed wearing a location monitoring device.

But a spokesperson from the U.S. Attorney’s Office told WBZ on Tuesday that Walshe’s bracelet did not have the GPS tracking features used in other devices. Instead, the device he is wearing uses radio waves that could have alerted authorities when he left his house, but could not relay his specific location.

A clearer picture of Brian Walshe’s criminal history comes into view (Jan. 10)

Allegations of fraud and deceit thrusted Brian Walshe through the state and federal legal systems long before authorities say he tried to mislead them in their search for his wife, who went missing from their Cohasset home last week, records in at least two legal proceedings show.

Walshe, 47, not only pleaded guilty to selling two fraudulent paintings by Andy Warhol in 2016, but has also been at the center of an ongoing dispute over his late father’s will for several years after family and friends alleged he destroyed the document and wrongly took over management of his father’s estate.

He offloaded prized heirlooms, including paintings by Joan Miro and Salvador Dali, before a cousin intervened, court filings allege.

“Brian is not a trustworthy person and his affidavit is based on lies and misrepresentations,” a longterm friend of his father wrote in a 2019 sworn affidavit filed in Plymouth Probate and Family Court. “He completely crafted fabrications and misrepresented reality to suit his needs, which are consistent with his pattern of appropriating [his father’s] money, which he had skillfully done in the past.”

Read the full story here.

Ana Walshe’s mother speaks out on plea to visit (Jan. 10)

New details continue to emerge in the case surrounding the disappearance of Ana Walshe. Now, Ana Walshe’s mother has broken her silence and shed light on her daughter’s mindset shortly before she went missing. 

Ana Walshe’s mother, Milanka Ljubicic, told Fox News Digital that her daughter asked her to travel from Serbia to Washington, D.C. in a text message sent on Christmas Day. 

“She just said, ‘Please, mama. Come tomorrow,’” Ljubicic said in an interview that was conducted in Belgrade. “Which means, that clearly, there must have been some problems.”

Read the full story here.

Investigators end search of the Walshe’s Cohasset home (Jan. 10)

The search and processing of the Walshe family home in Cohasset was completed Tuesday afternoon, a spokesperson for the Norfolk District Attorney’s office said just after 4 p.m.

Although police are no longer searching the property, Cohasset and Massachusetts State Police detectives continue to investigate the case. There were no changes to the charges in place.

After initially searching the home for multiple days, police said on Saturday that “the ground search will not resume unless police develop new information that so warrants it.”

Investigators, however, returned Sunday. Brian Walshe was arrested later that day.

Investigators to test items found ‘north of Boston,’ as authorities continue processing at the Walshes’ Cohasset home (Jan. 10)

After investigators reportedly collected evidence at a trash facility in Peabody on Monday, the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday morning authorities recovered a “number of items” during a search north of Boston.

The items are now “subject to processing and testing to determine if they are of evidentiary value to this investigation,” prosecutors said.

“No detail on those items will be disclosed at this time,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement.

Cheryl Fiandaca, WBZ’s chief investigative reporter, reported Tuesday, however, sources told the news station police found trash bags with blood, a hatchet, a hack saw, a rug, and used cleaning supplies at the transfer station.

The news came as investigators continued to process the Walshes’ Cohasset home for potential evidence. Prosecutors said processing may conclude later Tuesday or sometime Wednesday.

In court Monday, Assistant District Attorney Lynn Beland said investigators found blood and a bloody, damaged knife in the basement of the home.

Evidence reportedly found at Peabody trash facility (Jan. 9)

Investigators found evidence connected to the disappearance of Ana Walshe while combing through trash at a transfer station on Newbury Street in Peabody, CBS Boston reported. News footage taken by the station’s cameras showed investigators in protective gear looking through the waste. K-9 units were also observed.

Investigators search trash facility (Jan. 9)

Police searched a trash transfer station in Peabody in connection with Ana Walshe’s disappearance, WCVB reported on the evening of Jan. 9. Several people could be seen digging through trash at Republic Services Transfer Station on Forest Street.

The search also included a dumpster that was moved there from the Swampscott apartment complex where Brian Walshe’s mother lives, according to WCVB.

Brian Walshe’s internet history (Jan. 9)

CNN reported on Jan. 9 that investigators found searches in Brian Walshe’s internet history for “how to dispose of a 115-pound woman’s body” and for information on how to dismember a body. A source told CNN that investigators received new information in days prior that made them switch their focus from a missing persons case to one revolving around the suspicion that Ana Walshe may have been killed.

Brian Walshe arraigned (Jan. 9)

After being arrested on Jan. 8 for misleading police, Brian Walshe was arraigned in Quincy District Court on Jan. 9. He pleaded not guilty and was held on $500,000 bail.

Prosecutors told a judge that investigators found blood and a bloody, damaged knife in the basement of Walshe’s Cohasset home. They also said that Walshe lied to police about his whereabouts on Jan. 1 and Jan 2., and that he was seen on security footage purchasing $450 of cleaning supplies from Home Depot, including mops, a bucket, and a tarp.

Read the full story here.

Below is a timeline with more details of the events surrounding the disappearance of Ana Walshe.